Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1963)

along to the White House, we figured. On the night of Friday, June 7, 1963, my date and I joined 540 other seniors of John Burroughs High School of Burbank in the grand ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. Just before I left the house to go out to the car (which my dad had loaned me for the night), my father put down his paper and took a long, close look at me. And even though he knew that mom had already slipped me fifteen dollars, he opened his wallet and gave me an additional ten-spot. Then he made a strange snuffling noise in his throat that I’d never heard before and ducked down again behind his paper. But at the prom I didn't have time to try to figure out what had been bothering my pop. Too much was happening. There were Secret Service men and photographers all over the place, which seemed to indicate the President wras going to showup any minute. So up, up went our hopes. Then a rumor spread around the ballroom that Mr. Kennedy was so busy upstairs table-hopping among such celebrities as Jack Benny and his wife Mary Livingston, Marlon Brando, Gene Kelly and his wife, and Dean Martin and his wife, that he simply wouldn’t be able to make it to our prom. It was about ten o’clock, and we were all sitting around at the tables like two opposing cheering sections — one sure that he’d appear any second, and the other just as certain that he wouldn’t — when A1 Hibler’s band struck up “Hail to the Chief.” There was a lot of yelling and screaming and flashbulbs popped off all over the place. We all got up and pressed forward and there he was. The President of the United States. At our prom. He had slipped in through a back door with Jack Benny. The two of them were making their way up to the bandstand. How did I feel? Numb. I remember grabbing my date’s hand — or maybe she grabbed my hand — and the two of us were cheering like crazy. What did I think about the President? Well, I was too excited to know. Maybe it’ll help if I tell you what some of the other kids said at the time or afterwards. Tom Giuffrida said, “As soon as Kennedy came in, it was great. First when I saw him I couldn’t believe it was him. I looked over and saw Jack Benny, too, and that was quite a surprise. The first thing I noticed about the President was what a tan he had. He looked so healthy. And he seemed — I believe I never thought of him as a human being before. I thought of him as something higher.” Jim Tucker said. “He made things exciting! It’s a funny experience, because you more or less think of the President not as a person but as an office. And when you see him, it — it’s hard to describe. I thought he was really sharp. He looked fairly young. He looked a little different than he did on TV — more like he’d just been on the beach. The air about him seemed very informal. “Everybody had been expecting him, but I didn’t notice the crowd reaction because 1 had my eyes on him. My girl friend P [Barbara Duby] was excited — all of a sudden he’s there! It seemed like a dream. Of course, she was excited because I got to 100 shake hands with him, since I was student body president.” Two presidents meet! Joan Bodley said, “We thought he was cute. He’s a lot better looking in person than he is on TV or in the photos they take. He acted like the kids — he didn’t seem like the President. “And he was really nice. There were so many people around him that I didn’t get to talk to him, but a lot of kids shook his hand. And I think he gave out a few autographs.” Mind you, we didn’t push or shove or act up; although he acted like one of the kids, we never forgot he is the President. He put us at our ease immediately when, standing up there on the bandstand with Tom, Jim. Rick and Mr. Benny, he cracked, “I want to thank you very much for letting us have the smaller rooms upstairs.” Then he pointed to Jack Benny and said, “I brought my brother Teddy.” After we’d stopped laughing he added seriously, “Next to being President— in fact, rather than being President — I would prefer being a member of this graduating class tonight. And Mr. Benny and I are not too old. All this country is and hopes to be is in this room tonight.” At this point my girl squeezed my hand real tight, and darned if my throat didn’t make the exact same sound that my dad’s had, for some reason, earlier that evening. JFK and Jack Benny But suddenly the President grinned and he turned to Mr. Benny and said, “Jack Benny will now give the address to the graduating class.” By this time I was so dazed that I didn’t catch Benny’s exact words. But I remember he did tell us he was impressed by our affair because it cost only eighteen dollarsa-couple. He said he almost choked on the food upstairs when he found out it was costing $1000-a-couple. While Mr. Benny was speaking, I noticed Rick Holbrook whispering to the President. A minute later. I realized what he must have been saying when he presented Mr. Kennedy with the surprise gift of the silver platter. The President seemed genuinely pleased as he smiled and said, “Thank you for the plaque.” In six or seven minutes, it was all over. The Secret Service men closed ranks around the President, and he and Mr. Benny went back upstairs. Maybe Jim Tucker summed up all our feelings when he said, “It’ll be something we won’t forget, that’s for sure. . . .” Incidentally, my dad will be home in a few minutes, and I’ve got the answer for him to the stuff he spouted yesterday morning about those foreign high school students whom he claimed “attacked” the President. He’ll find the answer spelled out PHOTOGRAPHERS' CREDITS Pgs 18-19: Pierluigi-Pix; pg 36: Evening Outlook; pg 37: Los Angeles Times; pgs 38-39: Grant-Black Star; pgs 40-41: Tom Caffrey; pgs 42-45: TrindlTopix; pg 47: Gilloon Agency; pg 48: PIP; pg 50: Birnback; pg. 57: Kobrin-Globe; pg 58: PIP; pg 59: (left) PIP, (right) Gilloon Agency; pgs 60-64: Claxton-Globe; pg 72: Art Palmer. for him in his own newspaper; and just to make sure he sees it, I’ve marked the story in red pencil. For the simple fact of the matter is that the students who “stole” the President’s tie clasp and handkerchief have returned them to Mr. Kennedy with explanations. First, a Javanese girl phoned the White House and said she hadn’t known what she was doing when she grabbed the President’s white linen handkerchief, she was sorry and she was mailing it back to him. Then, Bowo Soerjosoerdarmo, a nineteen-year-old exchange student at Harrison High School, Philadelphia, from Malanj. Indonesia, took a bus to the front door of the White House to return the clip with an apologetic letter explaining that he took it “in an exciting moment” when “I could not handle myself correctly.” Wearing a green sport shirt and khaki pants, Bo (as he is known to his fellow students in the American Field Service student exchange program) sought out a patrolman on duty at the northwest gate and tried to leave the gold pin, set with tiny emerald-like stones, and the note of apology with it. But instead, Bo was ushered into Pierre Salinger’s office, and in a few minutes he was escorted into the oval room and allowed to tell his story to Mr. Kennedy himself. “I hope that my action isn’t going to ruin diplomatic relations with Indonesia,” Bo said to his host. A little later, Bo came out again with another tie-clip, this one a “doodle bug” — a gilt replica of the famed PT-109. Bo informed reporters, “He was smiling. I don’t think he was angry. He let me take his picture with my camera. Then Mr. Salinger took a picture of me and him. Mr. Kennedy said it was okay; I think he doesn’t mind.” And if my dad still isn’t convinced that all high school kids aren’t headed for perdition, perhaps he will be by something else I just remembered about the night President Kennedy came to our senior prom. It was quite a few weeks after the prom, actually, that a reporter caught up with Jim Tucker and asked him a few questions. The first was “Do you think this sort of thing could happen in another country — that a head of state would voluntarily give up a hall like Kennedy did?” Jim answered, “Oh, maybe in Britain. But I think that in a country where they have a dictator or something like that, where public opinion doesn’t matter, I don’t think something like this could have occurred.” Then, when the reporter asked if Kennedy’s coming to the prom had made the government more real to him, Jim replied. “I think so. And I think it impressed upon the kids the fact that everyone does have a voice and it’s a good thing to organize so that you can accomplish something — even going as high as influencing the President.” That should convince dad that high school kids aren’t all bad. For despite everything I’ve said, he is convincible. Cause even though he’s a rock-ribbed Republican, I want you to know that on the day after the prom he clipped Kennedy’s at-the-dance photos out of both his morning and his evening newspapers and, without saying a word, tacked them up on the back of the door to my room. Sometimes I think there’s still hope for my father. — The End